ipod? No, It’s Music shield!

I love music, so i love this coming new product from Seeed Studio. It is a ipod/iphone dock compatible shield, can be work on Seeeduino v328, Seeeduino Mega and Arduino (Atmega 328 version).  It is based on VS1053b,  you can play variety of music format with this shield, even record sounds. The most interesting thing is, it has the very same 30 pins connector as ipod does have, and we make it possible to use the shield on any ipod compatible docks. You can output music to a external speaker, use the Play/pause, next song/previous song button on the dock or remote controller. This feature makes the shield really useful, you can use it as a real player now.

Below is the detailed pictures of music shield.

This picture shows a music shield stacking on a Seeeduino Mega. It is still a prototype, the final PCB color will be white. ( Or any other you would like to recommend? Just leave in comment). We have a TF slot, Audio I/O port, 5 control buttons so you can play/pause the music, goes to the next song or last, turn up/down the volume.

What makes this Music shield unique? It’s definitely the ipod compatible 30 pins connector. It’s pretty awesome if you have bought a ipod/iphone dock, so you can just sit your Music shield on the dock, and enjoy high-quality music on sofa, when you want to switch to next song, just press the next song button on the remote controller, everything is just like a real ipod.

Ok, here’s another news. It’s not a good new actually. We have been selling this Digital Storage Oscilloscope with Panels (Both Assembled and KITs) for quite a long time. Personally i think it’s a pretty awesome product, and the price is amazing ( 36 for a kit and 49 for assembled). But recently the Oscilloscope was marked up by our supplier, and we will not be able to continue the low price as before. We are really sorry for this, but we have to sell this product with a higher price:

Digital Storage Oscilloscope with Panels —– 54 USD

SMT-exempt Digital Storage Oscilloscope DIY Kit —– 48 USD

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That’s enough for today’s post. If you have any good suggestions, just leave in comment.

(P.S Is there a better name for our Music shield? )

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22 thoughts on “ipod? No, It’s Music shield!


  1. Kim:

    I found your blog a very helpful information!My Question can it be used in my ipod touch 32gb?

    UN:F [1.9.6_1107]
    Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

    The music shield works the same as ipod touch in some way, as it can be put on the ipod dock. But it could be not used with your real ipod touch 32gb.

  2. Music Shield is the perfect name. I seem to have read there is some overhead in initiating each audio playback ?? Can it be used in voice vocabulary playback ? Such as a case of playing words such as “Next station is Edinburgh” as four distinct playbacvk operations with no distinguishable delays between each word ?

  3. So–I am a little confused; are the button functions also controllable from the Arduino via code? So you could play track005 based on the value of an analog input? That would be very, very useful.

    -c

  4. A cool concept, I want it! It would be nice to buy/prototype my own fpod. (= fake iPOD) 😀

    Will it be some place/option to have a (optional) digital out?
    The VS1053b have I2S (high quality digital output, page 16 and 77; pin 11,12,25,36) – now I need to learn how to get I2S out to optical/electrical connection. Please route out these pinouts to 4 holes or to a toslink! 🙂

    A normal Toslink transmitter module (=optical) such as TOTX147PL measures 13.44×9.69×9.90 mm (HxWxH) Maybe too much? 🙂

    There is a mini Toslink connection who fits inside a 3.5mm plug, but it may be difficult to source/find it. I have never seen it in the electric stores. (Apple and some portable recorders use it)

    I want – no – I MUST have this LCD display. Why aren’t you’re selling it? How can you be so mean? :p
    Preferably in pink. Some things are better when they are bigger. 😮

    1. Hi Tinkerbell, I am glad to hear you like the shield and the LCD. The LCD was from a disassembled iPOD ALARM CLOCK so we don’t have many of them to sell. But since many people asked us to sell it, we decided to find something like this for you guys.

  5. call it a SeeedPod

    I don’t think apple could sue you for the pod part of the name
    (seeing as its a small podlike object made by seeedstudio)

  6. Anyone got any ideas where something similar to that LCD can be purchased.

    I’m sure I’m not the only person who longs for one of them 🙂

    Mowcius

  7. Hmm, this is the first music shield from us, we will see if there’s any feedback from our customer then upgrade it in next version.

    And, this shield absolutely can be powered by the dock.

  8. The ipod shield is a cool idea.

    What about adding a touch sensor chip like the QT1106 that will handle a touch wheel or a slider?

    It might also be nice to have an option of a dock extension cable in cause the *duino + ipod shield won’t fit in the dock.

    Can the *duino be powered from the ipod dock?

  9. Ye, the display is nice but it is from the Ipod dock, not a separate display… If we found any nice display like this, we will be glad to add them to our product line.

  10. Oh, and @Fando – I’m guessing that’s one of those generic brand iPod alarm clock docks, and it’s been disassembled so the display is loose.

  11. That’s pretty awesome! Two suggestions… you might have already implemented the first.

    [1] Make it so the iPod accessory can power the arduino – maybe this should be selectable using a jumper.

    [2] make a slightly smaller version without the iPod connector – so you could use it as a standalone mp3 player that could be arduino controlled.

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